A Real Family
by hockey.star
Summary: Nine months after Harry ends up at the Dursley's, a boy is born at a local orphanage who can change his life forever.  On Hiatus.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I don't own. If I did, the Blacks would rule the world :P

June 21, 1982

At the Dursley household in Surrey, not much had changed in the nearly 9 months since Petunia had found her much despised nephew on her porch. Dudley Dursely was still spoiled rotten, Vernon Dursley was still angry at the world, Petunia Dursley was still obsessed with normality, and Harry Potter was still being bullied by his cousin, all the while dreaming wistfully of the days when his mommy, daddy, and two favourite uncles smothered him with love. Unknown to them, there was a woman, stumbling along the street not far from where they lived, who had the potential to change their lives forever.

* * *

><p>Dina Ruslette was in labour. She had to find a safe place for her baby to come into this world; somewhere that his father's name wouldn't cause the child to be cast out, onto the street, immediately. This, of course, left only the muggle world. Because of this, she stumbled up the steps of the Barring Memorial Orphanage in Surrey. A strict-looking, but kind, woman answered her knock and ushered her in.<p>

Following the woman (who had introduced herself as Ms. Davenport, the head of the establishment), Dina found herself in a sterile room, which was obviously the hospital wing of the building. There was a young girl with a scraped knee being tended to in one corner. Gasping, Dina fell into the bed located in the opposite corner to the girl; the cancer had taken most of the strength from her body and she told Ms. Davenport as much. The latter noted a distinct foreign accent in her voice (North American french perhaps).

Many trying hours later, the end was near, "Almost there Dina," encouraged the night nurse of the orphanage. "Breathe, Dina, you can do this," added the Ms. Davenport, noting their patient's slumping, exhausted figure.

"Okay, Dina, one more good push should do it," stated the day nurse, who had stayed late for this occasion, "You can do this. Are you ready?"

The pale, shaking woman on the bed clearly did not have much strength left, but she screwed up all her courage and nodded determinedly anyway. She started pushing with all her might (which at this point, wasn't very much), "Good, Dina. Push. Push," encouraged all three other women in the room. Finally, a screaming baby boy entered this world.

"A boy," stated the night nurse, "And he's beautiful. Would you like to hold him?"

Taking her son in her weak, frail arms, Dina's adoring eyes misted with unshed tears, "Please take care of him. I don't have much time left and his father is out of the picture," she begged, "Under better circumstances, he would have been the light of our lives, but as it is, that is not possible, but please," she begged again, "I still love him more than the sun and the stars and the earth itself."

"Of course we will," Ms. Davenport smiled, comforting the crying woman, "We run the best orphanage this side of the country."

"This is the best place for him. His honourary cousin, Harry, is living with those horrible people not far from here," she said weakily, trying to make the women understand.

"We understand," replied the day nurse, her patient needed sleep immediately, "Rest now, you will see us and your son again in the morning."

"Reggie," Dina managed before slipping off into a doze, "Reggie James, after his uncles. Black after his father."

As much as she hated abandoning her child here, Dina could not see any other options. She could re-enter the magical world and give herself more time before the cancer took her, but what would be the point? She would still be lucky to see her son's first birthday and he would have to grow up not only motherless, but with the prejudices which were attached to the name "Sirius Black" these days. As of right now, nobody in the wizarding world knew of Reggie's existence and that's how she hoped it would stay until his first day at Hogwarts. There once was a time, many months ago, when she had fought for Sirius' good name, but when Albus Dumbledore that one mind-bending, confusing question, she lost, not only her only ally, Remus Lupin, but also her hope.

"Are you telling me that you think James Potter trusted someone other than Sirius Black with the life of his wife and child?" she remembered the questioning tone of Dumbledore's voice. Although she believed, whole-heartedly, that her fiancé was innocent, even the tumour in her brain did not addle her mind enough to answer that question with a "Yes."

Ms. Davenport and the nurses left Dina in the hospital wing to recuperate for the night; the birth seemed to have wiped whatever strength the cancer had not robbed her of. Unfortunately, her condition didn't improve by the next day. She was lucid just long enough to kiss her son and give the caretaker of infants a still photo of a beautiful young couple, "Make sure he gets that when he's older," she rasped weakly, "That's...that's...his father...and I...on our engagement...day."

The caretaker, Miss. Peterson, was struck by the difference between the frail woman in the bed and the one in the picture. The woman in the photo had long, shiny chestnut hair, long eyelashes surrounding deep, dark brown eye, and a healthy, olive complexion; the man was slightly paler with black hair, grey eyes, a muscular build, and an overall well-maintained appearence. If his parents were anything to go by, Miss. Peterson thought, than her new ward was going to be a very handsome young man.

* * *

><p>By the end of the day, the new mother's condition had worsened to the point that the adults at the orphanage were forced to take her to the hospital. The doctors immediately wisked her off for testing, bringing back sad results, "At this point, I believe that, under normal circumstances, she would have passed away a couple weeks ago. We see it all the time; people hold on for something to which they are looking forward. In this case, she was holding on for her son. But now, if she lasts the week, she'll be a medical miracle."<p>

As predicted, Dina Ruslette passed away three day later, clutching her beloved son.

A/N: I wasn't going to publish this until I had the entire thing written, but I'm suffering from writers block so I'm hoping readers will read and review. Perhaps supply some ideas. Thank you :)


	2. A Pig in a Wig

September 6, 1988

For 8-year-old Harry Potter, the day started out like any other; he woke up to the sound of his aunt's shrill voice (which, for once, he was actually pleased about since he was having a terrible nightmare about a snake with red, gleaming eyes), he endured his uncle's gruff remarks about his appearance and attitude, he made breakfast for his "family" (even in his head, he used quotations because, in his opinion, it took more than blood relations to make a family), he ate the couple pieces of toast leftover from his aunt, uncle, and cousin's breakfast. Under the scrutiny his aunt, he made himself a small sandwich for lunch at school and a much larger, more extravagant lunch for Dudley, he cleaned the kitchen and dining area then dashed out the door to start his daily walk to school as Dudley climbed in the back seat of the car so Aunt Petunia could drive him.

As he walked slowly towards the school grounds mere blocks from Privet Drive, Harry was dwelling on the nightmare which he had had the night before. Harry remembered his nightmares vividly. They almost always contained an evil, red-eyed snake and killer beams of bright green light. This green light haunted his days, as well as his nights. He was probably the only child alive that jumped when stoplights turned green. He thought this must be from the traumatic events that made up his earliest memories. Memories of flashing green lights and the scream of a terrified woman; this was probably the car crash in which, his aunt and uncle told him, his parents died.

Usually, Harry attempted to arrive at school just as the bell called the students to class as to avoid a run-in with Dudley and his gang before school. However, because he was so wrapped up in the thoughts of his nightmare, he didn't pay enough attention to the speed at which he was walking and realized with a horrified jolt that he had arrived at the school early; what a way to start his third year at school. Quickly, he hurried to his usual hideaway; a place that he usually spent his recess as to avoid Dudley and his gang.

Over the past two years, Harry had hidden in many places around the school, but none were as special to him as the bushes near the edge of the school grounds. The bushes had become, like his cupboard, a safe place to hide from the world. Perhaps it was the fact that students and teachers alike avoided the area, which differentiated the bushes from the many other hiding places he used. He was just settling onto the ground when, in the distance, he spotted a boy, whom Harry didn't recognize, being chased by Dudley and his gang. Since he was clearly a new student this year, Harry wondered what the boy had done to anger Dudley in such a short period of time.

Dudley's gang was gaining on the dark-haired boy, but Harry noticed an easy escape, of which the newbie wouldn't be aware. So, Harry left the safety of his bushes to help the student; he had to respect anyone who could anger Dudley within half an hour at the most.

The boy was heading down the wall towards a corner, perhaps hoping that there would be a teacher on the opposite side; there was not. However there was a door, which was barely noticeable unless, like Harry, you noticed even the smallest of details. The door led to a small closet which, Harry supposed, used to contain the equipment used by students at recess; however since students started bringing their own games for recess, it was now empty but the faculty seemed to have forgotten that it wasn't locked or sealed shut.

Harry jumped inside quickly, leaving the door opened a crack so he could see the boy rounding the corner. When the new boy did fly around the corner, glancing over his shoulder as he went, Harry opened the door fully and yanked the child into the closet before quickly shutting the door before the others reached the corner.

The boy gave a startled yelp, but seemed to realize that Harry was trying to help him and stayed quiet to avoid being noticed by the boys outside.

For 6-year-old Reggie Black, today was a very special day; his first day of school! Today was the day that he got to join the older children as they streamed out of the orphanage on the way to school. Reggie loved to learn; the day Ms. Thomas taught all the younger children to read had been his favourite day spent at the orphanage (Of course, he preferred the days spent outside the orphanage. His favourite outing so far, had been to the zoo, where he got to see all sorts of awesome animals!)

In his excitement, Reggie was practically skipping as he helped himself to breakfast, cleaned his room, and readied himself for the day. The morning seemed to drag on, but finally it was time to leave. The older students found younger students to whom they would show the way to school. Reggie was partnered with a 8-year-old girl name Lisa, who had lost her parents in a car accident some three years previous and a 10-year old boy named George. Reggie noted that neither of his supervisors seemed nearly as excited about going to school as Reggie felt.

"School isn't as exciting after a couple years, believe me," George said in response to Reggie's questions on the subject.

Lisa however had a very different reason for dreading school, "There's this bully in my year named DudleyDursley. He's horrible!" Lisa cried with a shudder, "I love my summers away from him."

"Oh," Reggie replied, not knowing how else to respond; he had very little experience with bullies. The three walked in amicable silence the rest of the way to the school grounds. At the school grounds, George left them to find his friends, but Lisa offered to show him to his class.

With a smile, Lisa started leading him towards the school, "There are several doors leading into the school which you can use, but unofficially they're labeled primary, intermediate, and senior based on which age group's classes are closest to it. These doors are the intermediate doors, which are the doors I'm going to use this year," Lisa smiled proudly at her new, elevated status, "If you keep going that way and around the corner, the senior doors are that way but you want the primary doors this way. What teacher did you-" Lisa cut herself of with a gasp, "Oh no!"

"What?" questioned Reggie, looking around but not seeing anything unusual.

"Dursley and his gang are coming this way," she whimpered, "Let's go this way," she said grabbing Reggie's arm and pulling him in the opposite direction.

Unfortunately, she wasn't quick enough, "Hey, Gladstone," a voice called, "Hey, Gladstone, why don't you seem _glad_ to see us?" Reggie rolled his eyes as the gang laughed; that was supposed to be a joke?

With a sigh, Lisa stopped, studying her feet with way more concentration than one should have when looking at feet. Reggie really didn't like this boy; Lisa was nice!

"So, Gladstone, how was summer without parents?" The leader (Dursley, Reggie suspected) asked cruelly causing his gang to laugh again and Lisa to sniff sadly.

Something in Reggie snapped at Dursley's question; that was a horrible, awful thing to say! This boy was mean! Reggie decided he didn't like bullies at all! The big, blonde bully opened his mouth to say something more, but Reggie beat him to it; two could play this game, "Hey, Dursley, I have a question," Reggie pulled the attention away from Lisa onto himself, "Are you a bully to compensate for the fact that you look like a pig in a wig?"

That caused quite a stir in the group; Lisa gasped fearfully, Dursley blinked stupidly, and the rest of the gang took a surprised step backwards. Apparently, nobody had had the guts to stand up to the foul boy and his "friends" before. Dursley recovered pretty quickly considering he didn't look capable of stringing a sentence together, "What did you just say to me, midget?" he growled menacingly.

Reggie arranged his face into an apologetic expression, "Oh, I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking," he gasped. The other boys visibly relaxed, thinking they'd won, "You probably don't understand English..I should say, 'Oink, oink'"

Dudley turned bright red and lunged violently at the smaller (though considering Dudley's size, that's not much of a feat) and younger boy, but Reggie had already darted off in the opposite direction. The other boys quickly followed; being that the boy was two years younger than them at an age when two years made a huge difference, they seemed like they would catch him easily, but Reggie had a plan. He would head toward the "senior doors" in hopes of finding an older student that wouldn't be afraid of Dursley's gang.

The plan was interrupted when Reggie rounded the first corner and someone grabbed his shirt and yanked him backwards. Thinking that the cruel boys had finally caught him, he let out a yelp, only to discover himself in a small, dark room. His saviour, a boy about Reggie's size, quickly slammed the door shut.

"Err..thanks, i-i think?" stuttered the younger boy, out of breath from his run and still a little confused at the change of events.

Harry smiled, laughing silently, "No worries, anybody who can piss off my cousin that quickly deserves saving. Harry Potter," he finished, stretching his hand in front of his body.

Instead of returning the handshake, Reggie stepped back a bit cautiously, "Your cousin?" he ask in a worried tone. He hoped the boy, Harry, wasn't going to hold him here until Dursley got here. though by the sounds of the confused, angry voices outside, he already had; perhaps Harry was waiting for the gang to catch their breath.

"Unfortunately," Harry grimaced, convincingly, "Don't worry, though, we don't get along. You can ask anybody. Everyone knows that I'm his favourite punching bag."

Perhaps it was the bitter tone Harry used that finally convinced Reggie of his saviour's sincerity, "Reggie Black," he introduced, reaching out to shake the hand of the bully's cousin.

The two dark-haired boys sat in silence for a while, waiting for the gang outside the door to disperse. Finally, Harry broke the unspoken agreement of quiet, "So," he asked in a casual tone, "May I ask what you did to rile up Dudley's gang in such a short period of time?"

Reggie looked over to the boy, nervous once more. "Err-" he started hesitantly. Would his saviour be insulted by his snide remark about his cousin? "I sorta asked him if he took to bullying people to compensate for the fact that he looks like a pig wearing a wig."

To Reggie's great surprise, Harry doubled over with laughter. By the time Harry was able to compose himself enough to speak, he had tears in his eyes. Wiping them away, he said, "You know, Reggie – I've often thought that myself."


	3. Magical Discoveries

Disclaimer: If I owned either Black brother, they'd still be alive and living in my basement. Mwahahaha.

It wasn't long before Harry and Reggie were inseparable. They were rarely seen apart from one another during break at school. Unless, of course, one of them was being chased by Dudley's gang like Harry was at the moment.

Harry looked over his shoulder; Dudley's gang was falling behind but he knew he wouldn't be able to keep running for long. Reggie was running at him from the opposite direction. _If I could just get to the bins outside the kitchen_, he thought, _they could offer us some protection_. The bins weren't far in front of him now. Harry leapt, hoping the momentum would take him behind the bins. It didn't. Instead, Harry kept going. He finally landed, miraculously, on the roof.

"What the-" Harry gasped, looking over the edge. He was going to be in so much trouble! Nobody ever believed him when crazy stuff like this happened. Dudley and his gang stopped, stunned at the new development, then turned and fled, obviously scared of whatever force caused their would-be victim to end up on the roof. Reggie was equally stunned, standing at the base of the building staring up at his friend, "What in the world was that?" he demanded.

Harry shrugged, his mind still reeling from his flight, "I think the wind must have caught me mid-jump," that was the most logical explanation that he could come up with.

Reggie however did not agree, "Come off it, mate. Scrawny little thing, you may be, but it's not _that _windy," he yelled up at his older friend.

Their yelling was starting to attract attention from others around them, including, unfortunately, the schoolyard supervisor, "Dear God, boy!" she shrieked, panic lacing her tone, "What in the world are you doing up there? It's dangerous!"

"I didn't mean to, ma'am. I swear. I just ended up, up here. I don't—I don't know what happened," Harry cried fearfully.

Harry's claims of innocence did nothing to stop the ensuing lecture or the Principal's angry letter sent home to the Dursley's.

"They're going to kill me," he moaned to Reggie as they were leaving the school, "They hate when something strange occurs around me! I always get sent to my cupboard."

The solution to Reggie was obvious, "So don't tell them."

Harry, having not been properly socialized with other children, did not understand Reggie's advice, "But I have to get my note signed," he stated.

Reggie rolled his eyes, "Yes, but what does the note say? It says you were climbing the walls. Not that you were doing anything that can't be explained. So tell them we were climbing the school walls."

"You mean lie?" Harry asked, startled.

"The older guys at the orphanage do it all the time," Reggie shrugged

Harry's mind exploded with possibility, "YES! How did I not think of that? That's the best idea I've ever heard! Thanks, mate!" Harry cried happily.

Harry was still skipping when the two parted ways; Harry to his aunt and uncle's house and Reggie to the place that both boys considered home.

Facing Uncle Vernon's purple face, Harry's excitement was quickly fading and dread was replacing it. It was hard to keep courage when confronted by his Uncle's ugly, purple face, "HOW DARE YOU DO SOMETHING SO FREAKY WHEN YOUR AUNT AND I HAD THE DECENCY TO TAKE YOU IN OFF THE STREET AGAINST OUR BETTER JUDGEMENT! WE SHOULD HAVE JUST SENT YOU STRAIGHT TO THE ORPHANAGE!"

Harry had to bite his tongue to resist pointing out that he preferred the people at the orphanage over those on Privet Drive. Instead he took a deep, calming breath and hoped that his uncle wouldn't be able see through his lie, "I don't understand what was so freaky about climbing the school walls. Reggie told me that he didn't think I'd manage and I wanted to prove him wrong!"

This statement threw Uncle Vernon off his rant, "You were climbing the walls?" he asked in confusion.

Harry bit back a relieved smirk, "Obviously, Uncle Vernon. How did you think I got up on the roof? We were just having a bit of fun, I swear."

Uncle Vernon looked taken aback; Harry knew the suggestion that he was the one seeing unexplainable things where none existed confused him. Harry watched his uncle study the letter for a few more moments before, he started yelling again, "WELL, YOU SHOULD BEHAVE BOY! GET TO YOUR CUPBOARD UNTIL IT'S TIME TO MAKE US DINNER, YOU DELINQUENT!"

Harry hurried to his cupboard, unwilling to give his uncle time to change his mind; this was the lightest punishment he had ever received after one of these unexplainable events. He was even going to be allowed out of the space today! Harry had to admit that, for a six-year-old, Reggie was pretty much a genius.

Days later, Harry visited Reggie at the orphanage for the first time, "This is an orphanage?" staring around him in amazement.

To most children, the orphanage was a step down from home, but Harry wasn't most children. To him the orphanage was a palace compared to the Dursley's. Sure, the walls were a little bland, and the toys in the playroom were used and, in some cases, starting to fall apart, but they were cherished and shared among all the children. The caretakers were all smiling at the laughing children despite the noise they were making, and the rooms, although shared by 2 or 3 people, allowed for much more space than his cupboard.

"It's not much," Reggie mumbled shyly, misunderstanding Harry's exclamation.

"Are you kidding? It's amazing! Are we allowed to play with the toys?" Harry chattered, his eyes sparkling with joy.

Reggie laughed at his friend's excitement, "Of course, what else would we do with them?"

Two hours later, Harry was still enjoying the first time, in his memory, he ever had toys with which to play, "Reggie," he laughed, "Motorbikes don't fly!"

"What fun is life without a little creativity?" Reggie retorted, "Plus, neither do boys, but you did it on Tuesday!"

"I didn't fly, I just-" Harry trailed off,

"You did so!" Reggie interrupted Harry's regular excuse, "I'm the same size as you and the wind didn't even push me, so it didn't do anything to you!"

"But Uncle Vernon says that magic doesn't exist."

"Yeah, well your Uncle's a meanie-pants!" Reggie pouted, "Plus, you said that he doesn't like anything out the ordinary, so maybe he just doesn't _want_ it to exist."

Harry looked into his best friend's hopeful eyes, "Well-" he hesitated, "It...it would be pretty cool if we could fly."

"YES!" Reggie yelped, jumping up in excitement at his older friend's submission, garnering the attention of the other kids in the room, "Tomorrow we _are _going to figure out how to fly!"

The next day, Harry and Reggie spent the entire day at the park. Their attempts at flying were not working as well as they had hoped. They started they started running and jumping as Harry had done earlier in the week; then when that didn't work, they climbed to the lowest branches of the nearest tree and jumped, which led to several bruises but no flying.

They had been at it for almost four hours before Reggie lost patience with their lack of success, "Fine! Maybe people can't fly!" he admitted, tears forming in his eyes from the broken dream.

Harry could not remember believing in magic; it was one of the many things his so-called 'family' stole from him. There was no way that he was going to allow the same belief be stolen from his first and only friend, "No, we can. Remember, I did. We just have to work at it. Maybe...maybe..."

Harry trailed off; he didn't actually know if people could fly, but he was sure going to find out, "We're not focusing enough. When I landed on the roof, I was focusing completely on getting away from Dudley and them, we just have to remake that focus."

"That's true," Reggie muttered uncertainly.

Harry was still considering this when his attention was caught by another group of children 'flying', "Look!" Harry exclaimed, pointing at some older boys on the swings who were jumping off at mid-height and landing hard on the ground.

Reggie looked over at the boys as well. He didn't say anything but Harry could see a complete turnabout in his body posture.

"I'm going to fly again. You in?" Harry grinned, running towards the only available swing. This morning when he left for the park, he would have had to admit that he thought flying was impossible despite his young friend's excitement. But now, he was going to fly, whether it was possible or not. The Dursleys had took his childish innocence, there was no way Reggie's was going to be taken from him by anything.

Playing on the swings was the only fun his 'family' ever allowed Harry to have, mostly because Dudley thought playing on the swings was lame. Of course, Dudley found all games that did not involve punching anyone in the face to be lame. His expertise was not able to ease his nervousness about jumping off the swings at such a height but his determination to wipe the defeated expression off of Reggie's face was.

He forgot his own nervousness and focused solely on the path he had to take in order to keep that awful demeanour of heartbreak far, far away from his good friend. He took one last deep breath just before reaching the top and leapt. As focused as he was on his flight, he didn't even notice the shrieks of fear that came from the mothers sitting by the playground or the gasps of amazement which came from the other boys sitting on the swings. What he did notice was the thrill and sense of completeness he felt during the flight. It was intoxicating; it was addictive.

He was not pulled from his flying high until Reggie's voice broke through the clouds in his mind after he had landed ten metres from the swing set, "You flew! You flew! You flew!" Reggie repeated jumping up and down around Harry.

Harry, himself, was too stunned to join his friend. Just this morning he would have scoffed at anyone who said he could fly off a swing and land 10 metres away...because he believed the Dursleys when they told him magic didn't exist. Had they been wrong, or were they lying? When he voiced these concerns to a still excited Reggie after almost half an hour of brooding.

The answer was almost immediate, "They were lying. I heard some of the older girls talking last night. They said that they knew that one of them liked a guy at school because," Reggie paused trying to remember properly and spoke slowly trying to get it right, "the lady...doth...protest too much. I think that means that if the Dursleys hadn't known about this then they wouldn't have been so insistent that it doesn't exist. I mean the leaders at the orphanage don't believe in magic, but they let us believe what we want."

Harry thought that Reggie's logic was infallible. Why did the Dursleys ban even the word 'magic' from their house? Were his parents magical? Was that what made them so 'freaky'? Because Harry didn't mind being a so-called 'freak' if it meant that he could do magic. Were his parents worthless drunks, as well as magical? Or was that just a story that the Dursleys made up to keep Harry from asking questions?

And thus begun Harry's silent rebellion.

A/N: Thanks for sticking with me. I know it's been forever since I updated but I realized that I had no outline whatsoever, so I started one of those then started outlines for three _new_ stories and then remembered I had to finish this chapter. I have somewhat of an idea of where I'm going with this now so yay for that.


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